1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a maintenance support system for an electronic apparatus, and particularly relates to a remote control maintenance support system capable of collective, centralized management of maintenance work for an electronic apparatus, such as a video processing apparatus switching, reproducing, or processing video signals, at a remotely locate center.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, high reliability is sought for an electronic apparatus such as a video processing apparatus installed in a broadcast station etc. for use in the processing of a video signal. This is because if a breakdown affects the broadcast etc., the cost of compensating for damages becomes extremely high.
In such a video processing apparatus, redundant systems are provided at several stages so that the breakdown of one part will not cause the entire apparatus to stop functioning. A backup system is made to immediately start operating when a breakdown occurs. During the operation of the backup system, it is necessary to quickly repair the broken down apparatus before a subsequent breakdown occurs.
For this reason, in such a video processing apparatus, it is necessary to reliably perform periodic maintenance and quickly make restorative repairs when a breakdown occurs.
In the prior art, when a breakdown occurred in a video processing apparatus, the occurrence of the breakdown was indicated to an operator by a lamp or buzzer. When learning of the breakdown, the operator communicated with a maintenance center of the manufacturer by phone to request repair.
Information on the breakdown of the apparatus, the operation log, etc. required for the repair of the breakdown was obtained by a serviceman examining the broken down apparatus after the serviceman arrived at the actual location.
Contrary to this, in a remote maintenance management system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 11-205346, the technique of reporting trouble to a remote apparatus via a communication line (public line) when trouble occurs in a general apparatus (office automation apparatus) or the like has been used.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the configuration of a maintenance support system for a video processing apparatus of the prior art.
The maintenance support system for the video processing apparatus of the prior art shown in FIG. 1 includes a report reception terminal 91 and a report relay device 92 connected to each other by a public telecommunications network 9 and a group of apparatuses 93 connected to the report relay device 92.
Here, when any apparatus in the group of apparatuses 93 reports trouble, the report is sent via the public telecommunications network 9 to the report reception terminal 91 at a remote location by the report relay device 92.
In the prior art, it is possible to report the occurrence of a breakdown or other abnormality. In an electronic apparatus such as a video processing apparatus, however, sometimes identification of the cause of the breakdown is difficult. Namely, there are cases where a slight abnormality occurs in generated video and cases where the breakdown must be investigated using the operation log of the apparatus. Further, there are also cases where the situation is difficult to grasp unless not just a single apparatus, but the processing system of the video signal as a whole, is investigated.
The remote maintenance system of the prior art could not handle such disadvantages in the maintenance work for an electronic apparatus such as a video processing apparatus.
An object of the present invention is to provide a maintenance support system of an electronic apparatus capable of collectively and centrally acquiring the information required for maintenance work at a remotely located center.
According to the present invention, there is provided a maintenance support system for an electronic apparatus, having one or more electronic processing systems for carrying out the predetermined processing provided with an electronic apparatus, and a remote management center connected to each of the electronic processing systems via a public telecommunications network so that two-way communication is possible, and wherein each of the electronic processing systems comprises a means for transmitting to the remote management center connection information and setting information concerning setting of the electronic apparatus and a problem notification or information notifying occurrence of a problem or trouble of the electronic apparatus, and wherein the remote management center comprises: a mean s for reporting the notification of occurrence of a problem in the remote management center when receiving a notification of occurrence of a problem of an electronic apparatus from an electronic processing system, a means for receiving a notification of occurrence of a problem and configuring a reproduction use electronic apparatus having substantially the same connection and setting as the connection and setting of the electronic apparatus in the remote management center at a point of time when it receives the notification of occurrence of a problem, and a means for reproducing on the reproduction use electronic apparatus the state when the problem occurred by executing the same operation as the operation of the electronic apparatus at the point of time when it received the notification of occurrence of a problem.
Preferably, each of the electronic processing systems comprises: an operation log storage means for storing operations on the electronic apparatus, and a means for transmitting the stored content of the operation log storage means to the remote management center periodically or when requested by the remote management center or when the stored content reaches a predetermined level.
Further preferably, the remote management center comprises: a log storage database provided with storage areas corresponding to the electronic processing systems, a means for receiving the stored content of the operation log storage means from the electronic processing systems and storing it in the log storage database, and a means for receiving the notification of occurrence of a problem and tracing back and executing on the reproduction use electronic apparatus the operations on the electronic apparatus stored in the log storage database so as to reproduce the conditions at the time of occurrence of the problem.
Further preferably, each of the electronic processing systems comprises a means for transmitting information relating to the operating state of the electronic apparatus sampled at a predetermined period to the remove management center.
Further preferably, the remote management center comprises: a log storage database provided with storage areas corresponding to the electronic processing systems, a means for receiving the connection information and information concerning setting of the electronic apparatus and information relating to the operating state of the electronic apparatus sampled at predetermined periods from the electronic processing systems and storing it in the log storage database, a means for receiving a notification of occurrence of a problem and configuring in the remote management center a reproduction use electronic apparatus having substantially the same connection and setting as that electronic apparatus in the electronic processing system based on the connection information and information relating to the setting of the electronic apparatus stored in the log storage database, and a means for tracing back and executing the same operations as the operations of the electronic apparatus stored in the log storage database so as to reproduce the state at the time of occurrence of the problem on the reproduction use electronic apparatus.
Still further preferably, the remote management center comprises: a means for transmitting operational inputs including designation of operational apparatuses and/or speech information from an operator in the remote management center to the electronic processing system, and a means for receiving and displaying operational inputs and speech information from an operator in the electronic processing system.
Further preferably, each of the electronic processing systems comprises: a means for displaying the operational input and/or speech information from the remote management center, and a means for transmitting operational inputs and/or speech information from an operator in the electronic processing system to the remote management center.
Specifically, the electronic apparatus is a video processing apparatus used for the processing of a video signal, and at least one of the electronic processing systems is a video processing system including the video processing apparatus.
Preferably, the video processing system comprises a means for capturing a still image from a video apparatus designated by a video capture command from the remote management center, then transmitting the captured still image to the remote management center.
Further preferably, the remote management apparatus comprises: a means for searching back through the operation log stored in the log storage database up to a predetermined time of operation for an error relating to the operation based on the information received from the electronic processing system, and a means for searching through a problem cause database for the possibility of error relating to the configuration and setting of the system.
Preferably, the remote management center comprises a means for retrieving the problem of the apparatus in the electronic processing system from a problem cause database based on information received from the electronic processing system and the setting and operation log of the apparatus stored in a log storage database.
Specifically, the Internet is used as the public telecommunications network.